FFXIV: catch all

Finally got around to clearing Hades Extreme. It took around 6-7 hours on a Sunday from Phase 1 to Phase 4. It looked really bad from the videos, but I thought it wasn't too difficult. The DPS checks and long duration were the worst parts.

In a 1 hour window, a group clearing phase 3/4 could only get like 3-4 attempts. The mechanics are all recycled from other extremes, so if you've cleared them, it's like a stroll down memory lane. Shinryu and Sophia took me a lot longer to clear sync'd than this one.

I haven't yet tried to clear an Extreme Trial yet when it's current, only done a few unsynced just to get them out of my quest log.

I've been leveling Machinist lately, and have it up to 51 so far. It's a hectic job but I like the big bursts and combos. Still feeling my way around the various abilities and when to use what, but hopefully it'll all make more sense as I get closer to 80.

The crafting/gathering changes, along with the Ishgard Restoration, has me trying to get back into that aspect of the game again. I took a miner from 1-35 in a single evening from both the base XP increases across the board, and a bunch of extra XP boosts on top of that. All my crafters are in the 20's or 30's. I still get bored with it sometimes, but it's a good excuse to watch more numbers go up as I level each one.

I've also managed to get 3 gear drops from the Nier raid, along with the 2B outfit. If I can get the minions and the other two gear pieces in the next couple weeks, I'll probably stop running it outside of roulettes. It's a fun raid, but it's a little stressful to me and I'm starting to get tired of it.

The credits are currently rolling on Shadowbringers. Doooooope, dopedopedope! This is top tier FF. Emet-Selch, all timer. Ardbert, loved the dynamic. Feo Ul, gentle chiding make me well up. Just incredible. Now to level Culnarian a little (while my FC thirsts for the Exarch, I feel Vaylen Troubador's destiny is to move to Portland with Y'shtola and open a bakery/bookstore), and then open all the stuff I've been ignoring. I still don't have a Raid. I also acquired a fancy stout for this occasion, and it's calling me.

I'm currently an 80 DRK 70 SAM 70 BLM 63 AST 61 RDM then various others. The issue with making each class cool is I want to do them all.

I resubbed 2 weeks ago and I feel even more in love with crafting/gathering with new changes. I'm sitting on a level 67 White Mage, 75 botanist, and 75 weaver...At this rate, my crafting/gathering will hit 80 before my actual battle class!

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EKGQFZ2VUAEeTbu?format=jpg&name=small)

Yep, it happened!

Now I need to focus on actually getting to Shadowbringers. I'm finding the end of Stormblood a bit of a drag. I'm skipping through a lot of dialogue. I like the big bad villain, but all the political talk, rallying forces blahblahblah...It's wearing thin.

Had a bit of fun dressing up for Christmas today. Spent a little bit much on a fancy staff, but just look at the darn thing!

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EL4dPN6U0AMcuAq?format=jpg&name=small)

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EL5q6cKU0AATzy8?format=jpg&name=large)

And I'm still loving the game. Shadowbringers is sublime, really something special. I've also made the switch from White Mage to Black Mage! A friend surprised me with a level boost, so it's been pretty refreshing exploring a whole different role after hundreds of hours as a healer. Both are incredibly enjoyable jobs!

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EMTzBgmUYAEkAWF?format=jpg&name=small)

Finally crafted enough damn Ishgard restoration collectibles for this beauty. It probably took about 20-30 hours of pure crafting since I started at level 40 and leveled to 80 with it. The grind at the end was massive and cost a *lot*, but...I now I can flex my crafter muscles wherever I go

I finally finished the 5.0 MSQ last night (more like this morning). Wow!

Spoiler:

I don’t know whether I like more how they pulled your character into the story or how Emet-Selch was portrayed as a villain. In most Final Fantasy games, the villain is rarely someone sympathetic in the way he was.

Up until the very end, I was questioning whether we were actually in the right. The Ascians had lost their homeland, and we were occupiers preventing them from restoring it. It was once we learned why Hydaelyn was created that I decided that we were, since we were not occupiers so much as a sacrifice cultivated by the others (and even then for a ‘good’ reason).

I also liked the revelation that you were (sort of) one of them. It’s implied that you were Someone from that time, and theories suggest you were the one who left the Convocation over the summoning of Zodiark. I can’t remember an MMO that inserted you into its story like that.

Also, Emet-Selch said he had kids, so now I wonder if we will ever meet them. If we do, I hope they are not all villains. Emet-Selch was tempered, so he had no choice but to serve his master. They would not and would not.

Just checking in because I realized yesterday that I've reached the post-endgame--hunting glam items I don't think I'll actually end up using. I've got a Plague Bringer's Coat completing my RDM, and a Bonewicca Whisperer Jacket completing my BLM, yet I'm still after a caster body from Mhach, even though I'm pretty sure SMN will just use the Bonewicca, too.

5.2 has been pretty fun so far. I've definitely found that the loot grind for a new raid tier doesn't really excite me, but I've been leveling a Machinist, which is I'm really liking. It's active, but so far not as randomly hectic as Bard can be. That said, this expansion's raid has my favorite story of the bunch.

Also spending more time getting my crafters and gatherers leveled. All my crafters are at or near level 40, and doing the Ishgard Restoration turn-ins levels them up ridiculously fast. I suppose soon I'll be able to start doing the Moogle and Namazu beast tribes finally.

I think the story is neat, but I only have maybe 30 minutes a day to play. So putting the new content behind hours of cut-scenes stinks. It has been almost two weeks and I still cannot do the expert roulette.

I don't want to just skip the story, so I like the expansions that let you unlock the dungeon first and prod the story at leisure.

I started the expansion with everything at 70, and machinist changes since I played it last were interesting. They took a really complex wildfire rotation and boiled it down to hitting 3 buttons repeatedly. I miss the old rotation, but I understand the need to make it comparable to other classes instead of a giant 'simon says' of follow the combo ants.

At least the new trial and raids only require finishing the first main story quest, so you can jump into those right away. It does take a surprising amount of time to get to the new dungeon, though.

Surprisingly, I'm still playing. I had a big slump for a month or two and only stayed subbed to do my daily turn-ins and chat with my FC, but I'm back into the swing of things and cleaning up Shadowbringers.

To keep it brief: Yeah it's totally the best gameplay and story we've had from FFXIV, but I still get bored from time to time. There's a lot of filler between the good stuff, which I sorta expect from a MMO but...It's still draining. I'll be heading back to study in 2 days so I'm sure that will irk me a lot more then, but even during my holiday with a tonne of free time, I found myself getting tired of the mindless activities between the incredible dungeons.

Currently level 79 WHM and I'm hoping to enjoy the end-game more than the journey.

While that sounds pretty dire, I still think the game is phenomenal. It's just that I feel like I've been playing catchup for 300-400 hours

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ESBIiHmUcAQ9cOa?format=jpg&name=small)

Good news, everyone! I can finally start playing FFXIV!

I finally got around to unlocking the Namazu beast tribe quests this weekend. I haven't always been a fan of how aggressively goofy they were in Stormblood, but this quest line and the dailies actually had me laughing quite a bit. I usually skip over the dialog in the other daily quest lines (though not the big plot quests each reputation tier), but these have been funny enough for me to read through so far. They're also as trivial and occasionally mindless as the combat daily quests are. I don't really mind that, though.

My Machinist is at 68, and I have a set of Augmented Scaeven gear waiting for when I reach 70. That should keep me covered most of the way to 80. I even bought some Deepshadow gear as I think I'm enjoying the job enough to play some endgame stuff with it.

Last night I joined a party doing treasure map dungeons, something I'd never done before. I didn't have any of my own to do, but 3 others had maps, so we traipsed all over the Shadowbringers zones digging up treasure chests and warping into dungeons. We managed to get to the end once, which I'm glad I was able to see.

Since picking up gathering, I've found and completed several of the 1 person treasure chests, and I've just recently dug up a couple of the prior expansions' group treasure maps. I'm not sure how many people still run through the older ones.

Yet another system just hiding out in the game that I hadn't yet delved into in the previous years I've played.

The FC I'm part of does Treasure Map Tuesday, except they do it at 8 PM EST, which is a bad time for me.

So, I finished the game! MSQ is done, and I'm ready for the next patch. I'll admit I started skipping through things near the end, but I'm really enjoying endgame content. I like the slow but steady grind for gear and massively increased difficulty of the raids and current trials! My FC and I cleared out Eden 8 yesterday, and we've been working on Ruby Extreme...Which is true to it's name. We're falling just short of finishing phase 1, and it's making my head spin.

It's a whole new game at 80, and it's given me a greater appreciation for the subtle differences between classes.

Speaking of, I've started levelling a Dark Knight since my White Mage is currently capped on weekly tomestones. It's so much different, and it's totally reinvigorated me. I love the heavy and deliberate playstyle...It's making me look at dungeons completely differently.

It's such a fantastic game. Truly the best MMO out there IMO.

Last night I joined a party doing Treasure Map dungeons, something I'd never done before. I didn't have any of my own to do, but 3 others had maps, so we traipsed all over the Shadowbringers zones digging up treasure chests and warping into dungeons. We managed to get to the end once, which I'm glad I was able to see.

My FC runs lvl60 and lvl80 maps, Wednesday and Saturday respectively. Always a good little social event, the extra gil is nice too! I lost a roll for 3 shell leathers last week by 1! That would have been an easy million gil+ with my weaver :'(

I was checking off Wondrous Tales entries this weekend, and joined a party wanting to do the original Shiva Extreme fight. Because I wasn't paying attention, I didn't realize they were going to do it sync'd at level 50, rather than blasting through it at 80. I was pretty nervous when the fight started and I realized what was happening, but decided to stick with it. Took half a dozen tries or more, but we did manage to clear it for real. The 15% Echo boost by then helped, of course.

I'm taking it pretty slow with leveling machinist. I've been sticking to FATES, pixie quests, and hunts for the majority of my XP since hitting 70. The slower grind, as opposed to spamming every single roulette each day, has been kind of nice. It's also let me grind up a ton of areas' FATEs and grab some of the new Triple Triad cards from the gemstone vendors in each zone. I still have a few hundred left to get every zone's rank up. I just want those minions, really.

I'm looking forward to the Ishgard Restoration update tomorrow. I missed most of the first phase a few months ago, so I want to experience more of it this time around.

Got my first gatherer to 80, Botanist. Took my Miner into the new Diadem and got a bunch of XP there. I never visited the Diadem in its earlier incarnations, so it's neat to see it finally. Flying around and gathering stuff is meditative, even with occasionally bazooka-ing random monsters. With the amount of time I have to play, getting the mounts with Skybuilders Scrips seems like an impossible task, but I suppose there's still more than a year left on this expansion cycle so anything's possible.

On one hand, the new gathering diadem is pretty mindless and has some steep stat requirements if you want to hit the node bonuses (I can get the 840ish GP one, but no others).

On the other, I'm raking in so much Gil while I smack trees and watch movies on my second screen. I'm up past 2 million now, and that's after buying a bunch of stupid glams. It funded my rebel coat and a few other goodies! The best part? You get scrips for gathering as well! I sold one of the 1800 scrip emotes for half a mil. Ludicrous! If you want to go a level deeper, you can craft/gather the mats used for facet gathering gear. It's currently the best set in the game for this sort of thing, and stuff like ethereal silk is in high demand.

If you have crafters or gatherers, cash in!

Here's what that little bit of income bought

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ES6H_z-VAAAPW1y?format=jpg&name=small)

I used the new gunmetal black dye and it looks wonderful! I didn't think I'd ever be comfortable dropping over a million on a single cosmetic, but here we are. Beware, folks, glamour really is the true endgame.

I also paid out for the Rebel Coat, and I love it:
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/hB0yd97/Vaylen-Troubador-03-15-2020-01-48-51.jpg)

Rock the purple as much as I can. I don't have an income per se, I just never spend, and just from doing stuff I found I had in excess of 12 million. I world jumped to compare prices, and found one for 1.3. Did the same for the Urban Boots the other night, and found a pair for less than a million. For a long time I wasn't very satisfied with my tank looks, but in the past 2 weeks I gathered some options, and I'm not even done. I'm mentally preparing myself to tank Orbonne because if I can cosplay Agrias, I'm doing it. If we wanted to just share glams, I won't complain.

Speaking of purple, I paid a couple million on the market board for the Facet gathering set:
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/cIo6xsd.jpg)

With Mining and Botany to 80, I suppose the next step for me is to start seeing what's selling on the market board for the Ishgard Restoration and target some of that. It seems like no matter what, stuff from the Diadem is selling like hotcakes, so I'm hopeful I can make back what I spent on gear relatively quickly. I spent an hour gathering last night, and got around 1000 scrips for the various collectibles. Still have a ways to go for the mounts I want, but at least I have a rough idea how long that'll take me.

I moved this past week so haven't been able to play too much, but managed to get the latest beast tribe mount, and have been checking off the weekly activities I care about (custom deliveries, weekly hunts, Eden weapon token). Should be able to get the i490 weapon for my RDM next week, then I probably won't be too stressed about gearing up for a few months. I'd like to get my MCH's weapon upgraded, but I suppose I need to run the older raids a few times for that.

An interesting tidbit from this video is the NPC Trust AI is a modified version of the FFXII Gambit system. I also really liked the discussion of how they try to convey the NPCs' personalities through their actions in combat. Alisaie could cast cure, but she's more interested in attacking unless the healer is having a hard time.

This past week I finished getting all the FATE ranks in Shadowbringers zones up to 3. I'm hoping they don't do something like add a new rank for the upcoming relic weapons. At the same time, I still need more bicolor gemstones to buy some items that became available at rank 3, so that would be a good excuse to grind even more FATEs out.

This week is, I believe, the first week you can get the 490 weapon from this tier of Eden raids. I should get on that sometime soon.

I missed a few weeks, but I’m close on the weapon. I’ve been enjoying the new raids and taking it easy. I hope the relic weapon isn’t too bad. I’ve been alternating expansions where I went for it. I mostly ignored the grind in ARR, got my relic in HW, then ignored Eureka in SB. This is the first time I’ve been caught up (modulo Savage, which I don’t do), so I’m in prime position to go for it.

I've been diligent, so I got my 490 weapon for my main. Struggling to roll well enough for the Edengate armor, though--I need one more token, and have one more shot this week.

I was going to post a glam pic, but I realized all those I have right now are out of date.

I did manage to get my weapon yesterday. Still have quite a ways to go on the other armor pieces, though. Not sure how much effort I'll spend on that.

I was all set yesterday to return to my crafters (all of which are in the 40's) and start doing some Ishgard crafts. Then, when it came down to it, the grind ahead of me seemed really daunting and I ended up not doing it. I might just go back to doing leves and daily turn ins for crafters, and leave Ishgard scrip grinding to my gatherers.

They confirmed the next patch with the start of the Relic quest drops next week, so that may just take up my playtime instead.

Yesterday I hit 80. It's the first time I've been at max level on this game since 2.1. I'm playing to see the story through and I'm curious about the Nier content.

beanman101283 wrote:

I did manage to get my weapon yesterday. Still have quite a ways to go on the other armor pieces, though. Not sure how much effort I'll spend on that.

I did manage to get enough tokens for the armor...but the Crystarium body piece has better stats. Fortunately, I have a bunch of secondary classes, so one of them can get it.